Ah— yes— this is the missing piece of my D&D thred, knew KB would have it— every single “RPG” derives from group psychotherapy games designed by this guy
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_L._…
Psychodrama— group psychotherapy as “improvisational theater”— he gets plugged into the cybernetics guys & they create “rollenspiele” or “role-playing games”
Simultaneously uses these RPGs to model “social networks” (the origin of the term)
They wanted adults to learn how to be “like children” again— spontaneous— capable of full immersion in “improvisational psychodrama”
His disciple, Kurt Lewin, founds the school of “Group Dynamic Psychology” & invents “sensitivity training”
Lewin is tapped by the OSS, guess what his job is?
Sensitivity training, LARPing, Dungeons & Dragons, & Improv Comedy have the same origin— the codevelopment of psychological warfare & cybernetics at the OSS during WWII.
Lewin is at that same conference where Bateson says “anthropomorphic rat” — as the model of the citizen. This later becomes “the committee for national morale”
This is just the beginning of the wormhole too
Share this Scrolly Tale with your friends.
A Scrolly Tale is a new way to read Twitter threads with a more visually immersive experience.
Discover more beautiful Scrolly Tales like this.